DXO Photolab 3 very high CPU load just browsing images

While search for pictures by browsing I realized very high CPU load of 70-90%.
I mean, I’m just browsing! No processing or so!

Sytem:
MacBook Pro (OSX 10.15.5)
Quad-Core Intel Core i7 - 2,3 GHz
Memory: 8 GB

Any ideas what’s wrong? Never had such an issue with LR or anything I tested.

May be the reason for this indexing the folder content on the fly while browsing folder by folder?

I trigger manual indexing on my whole folder tree and will check if behavior is different.

After indexing the folders it started again :tired_face: while viewing different folders.
But I think I finally found the issue in the setting:

I do not need and want any processing of the images as long as I haven’t applied any processing to them. So that’s way I disabled any presets in the settings.
Hope this will finally solve the load issue and speed up browsing…

I don’t reckon that’s a good “solution”, Tom … See here for more detail.

Regards, John M

@John-M I’m totally with Robin turning off to apply presets. Even though PL is not intend to be a DAM I need to select the images to work on and for me it’s useless to have presets applied to image I may consider as rubbish.
To MHO this is a waste of resources and in contradiction to - of course - my way of working.

This is the problem of using PL for everything. Its a RAW processing program and the attempt to bolt bits and pieces onto that can’t work well while its main job is developing image’s. It takes little time to run folders through a suitable program to take out un-wanted image’s, indeed from the complaints of how slow PL is in doing this supports the value in doing this. The problem in DAM data being held in the data base supports, notwithstanding the value of PL DAM ability, using a proper DAM that creates sidebars as well as using a data base. All the problems show why PL really should concentrate on its strength of being a RAW processer over the marketing add ons.

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I understand that, but that also means that you then have to switch forth and back (DAM/PL). Also these two main task are overlapping. You have to browse, filter etc. through you data set (DAM) to identify the images to work on (PL).
Using either one or the other tool is interrupting the workflow. And of course you don’t have to make sure that your DAM let integrate you your processing application seamlessly.

Of course other people have different approaches to work on images and my workflow does not apply to everyone.

And we’re here to discuss things to learn and - maybe - improve stuff! :wink: So every comment is highly appreciated.

Best, Tom

PS: I’m also try find a good DAM solution for OSX/Windows which is not too expensive and works flawlessly with external image processing apps. So suggestions here are also appreciated! :slight_smile:

Cross-platform, you’d be short-listing Photo Supreme, Daminion (Standalone version) or maybe digiKam. For Windows only then iMatch is another option.

There are existing threads to discuss this further; for example Recommended alternatives to lightroom for cataloging & integration with DXO

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You can use Adobe LR or Bridge as a DAM for free. I started using it instead of the clunky PL (which is not a DAM anyway). If your workflow is cataloging photos with keywords and metadata than you don’t even need folders.

Which version of LR? To my knowledge version 5&6 don’t work under Catalina anymore.

I also experience the pegged-CPU thing from time to time. On my MBP, I have 8 cores and 16GB main memory, and in a directory with any more than about 20 images, PL3 is really off to the races. The notebook gets really hot and I have to cool it off for awhlie.

Agree that attempting to bolt on a DAM would be a mistake. It would be nice to have some kind of published spec to allow third-party developers to create their own plug-ins though. I mostly use an Excel spreadsheet, a python library, and Phil Harvey’s wonderful exiftool to manage the DAM end. It’s all klunky terminal stuff, an environment with which I am very comfortable, but the number of keystrokes to do it all becomes daunting.

LR classic 9

You can use the latest version of Lightroom Classic as a DAM for free. You have to have an Adobe account (this does not need any payment method attached), which enables you to download, run, and update the app. It will nag you each launch to sign up for a plan. Dismiss the nag window and you can use the Library module in full.

I do this to import my photos to my photo SSD, and then to add keywords, which I write back to the (DNG) files. Then I launch PhotoLab and pick, process, and export from there. My keywords — including hierarchies — make it right through this process into my final JPEGs.